Talk of the Town

"Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together." Such a powerful point made by Susan Sontag in her section of this essay. I often struggle with thinking, "Am I not patriotic if I disagree with many things going on in this country that other's seem to think are awesome?"

I was in second grade sitting in a class room on September 11, 2001. I still remember the horrified look on the teacher's face when she returned to the room after having been told of the tragedy that had ensued in New York earlier that day. I, being seated near the back of the room, heard the conversation in the hallway, so I knew what had happened (but I didn't completely understand it, being as young as I was).  I found it astounding that she refused to tell the class what had happened. Because here we were sitting in our class rooms wondering why all of our teachers left the room for a few minutes and returned red-eyed. I have always thought that adults underestimated the immense understanding of children.

I still believe that. It kills me when adults talk to a child as if he or she is a new-born puppy or something. It just instills a sense of inequality into him or her. Maybe I'm completely off-base, but that's how I've always felt. I've always felt the same notion in relation to how politicians talk down to "the average American citizen." Having just finished the first quarter of A.P. U.S. History, I just can't help but wonder why years ago politics seemed so close and personal, and now they seem harsh and far away. Why is "corrupt" one of the most commonly used words used to describe politics? Especially when very few of the people using this term know much about these politicians anyway.

It seems that Americans have little to no faith in those that run their country, but perhaps that is a bit off topic to relate to this article. I relate it because of the initial quote by Sontag at the beginning of this blog post. I feel like we all assume that the government is corrupt on any given day, but when a tragedy like 9/11 occurs or an event such as the death of Osama bin Laden, all of a sudden patriotism is flung all over the place, just like the fireworks shot off on July 4th of every year.

I feel like the majority of the public is incredibly under-educated on most political issues, including myself. And we are all to blame. We live in a culture that is so self-indulgent that we find the death of an enemy grounds to go out and party all night long, when in reality most of us knew NOTHING or very little about the recently departed man.

This article brings to light some of the imperfections that the United States government and its people's relationship has, and it brings out some of the most beautiful aspects of it. But, most importantly, it made me think about how I view the country, and what I can do to make myself not be one of the people being "stupid together."